Electronically Stored Information (ESI) refers to any information created, stored, or communicated in digital form that may be relevant to legal proceedings. This includes emails, documents, databases, social media posts, text messages, and the metadata associated with those files.
What is Electronically Stored Information?
Electronically Stored Information, or ESI, is a legal term that covers virtually all digital data that may be relevant to a lawsuit, investigation, or regulatory inquiry. The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure formally recognized ESI as a distinct category of discoverable material in the 2006 amendments. That change reflected the shift from paper-based to electronic document production that had been underway for decades.
ESI covers a broad range of data types: emails, word processing documents, spreadsheets, presentations, PDFs, images, audio and video recordings, text messages, chat logs, social media content, voicemails, database records, and system logs. ESI also includes the metadata attached to these files, such as creation dates, author information, and modification history. That metadata can be as important as the content itself.
The volume and variety of ESI create unique challenges for legal teams. Unlike paper documents, ESI can be duplicated instantly, stored across multiple systems, and modified without obvious physical evidence. These characteristics make preserving, collecting, and reviewing ESI far more complex than traditional document discovery.
"Any party may serve on any other party a request to produce and permit the requesting party or its representative to inspect, copy, test, or sample... any designated documents or electronically stored information -- including writings, drawings, graphs, charts, photographs, sound recordings, images, and other data or data compilations."-- Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, Rule 34(a)(1)(A)
Key facts
- According to IDC research, the global datasphere reached an estimated 175 zettabytes by 2025, making ESI management increasingly important for legal teams.
- The Compliance, Governance and Oversight Council (CGOC) found that over 69% of organizational data has no legal, business, or regulatory value, highlighting the need for effective filtering during e-discovery.
- FRCP Rule 26(b)(2)(B) addresses ESI that is "not reasonably accessible because of undue burden or cost," establishing a two-tier framework for discovery of electronic data.
- The 2006 amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure were the first formal recognition of ESI as distinct from traditional paper documents in federal discovery.
ESI in Hintyr
Hintyr handles a wide range of ESI formats. You can upload files including emails, PDFs, images, spreadsheets, audio, and video. The platform processes each file to extract text and metadata, making the content searchable and reviewable. For a complete list of accepted formats, see supported file types.
Once uploaded, ESI can be organized using tags, reviewed in dedicated viewers for each format, and redacted to protect sensitive information. When your review is complete, Hintyr's production tools let you export documents in formats that meet opposing counsel's requirements while maintaining Bates numbering and redactions.